Memorandum
by bombalurima
Summary: My take on the entire life story of Jet, Freedom Fighter and a hero in his own right. Will cover all chapters of his life, right from his birth to his death. Rated T for safety in later chapters.


**A/N: I've always been fascinated by Jet and his character, and as such, I couldn't help but want to write his story, to perhaps add some more depth to him and perhaps make people understand him a bit more. He's a highly intriguing character, and I couldn't _not _write something like this. I imagine this fic will get pretty long...it covers his entire life, from his birth to his death, after all. Nevertheless, I hope you'll enjoy it and stick with it to the end. Thanks!**

**As a side note, the title '****Memorandum' is Latin for "A thing to be remembered."**

* * *

Hatsuye and Shigeru's son was born on a sweltering, blistering hot day in summer that was too scorching for any kind of activity to be taking place, let alone a birth.

The baby had come unexpectedly—it was another month at least, Tayuya, the oldest woman in their little village of Shinai (who knew more about birthing babies than anyone else did), predicted before the baby should be expected.

Hatsuye had been out in her vegetable garden, tending to her poor tomatoes (who were all dying off in the insufferable heat) when she felt it, a warm liquid trickling down her leg, and knew just what was happening: her baby, whether she liked it or not, was entering the world now.

Her husband, Shigeru, was in the barn checking on a cow and the baby calf she had just delivered the night before, and she didn't dare make the short journey into the thick of the village to seek assistance there. She did what came natural to her—and sat down.

Shigeru heard her shrieks of pain on his way back into the house and came running—she only told him to run into the village and fetch Tayuya, perhaps a few other experienced women. Hatsuye was a fiercely independent woman, but could admit when she needed help—and this was one of those times.

Shigeru ran as fast as his feet could possibly carry him into town, located Tayuya sitting on the porch outside her son's house, and not only brought the old woman back to his home, but several other concerned women as well, all twittering away about how the baby being born early meant there was a higher chance of it dying, and how the blazing sun didn't help matters much.

Though Shigeru fussed that his wife should be moved into the house immediately, Tayuya had other ideas—she was too far gone now. To move her body would be both disastrous for her and the baby. She had to have it here, on the ground, or nothing. The farmer swallowed his pride and his discomfort with the situation and let it pass. The baby was coming either way.

He paced, hovered, squeezed his wife's hand and brought water whenever someone demanded it, doing whatever he could to keep Hatsuye's cries and sobs out of his mind as she fought to bring their child into the world. The day dwindled by, the sun sinking lower and lower in the clear blue sky, almost until evening fell.

"I see the head!" Tayuya croaked in a voice cracked with both use and age. "One more push Hatsuye, one more good strong push!"

With a shriek as if she were being torn in half (and it certainly felt that) Hatsuye heaved one last mighty, final time, and delivered her baby into the diligently waiting hands of the old woman.

Her child was born, literally, in sweat, blood, dirt and tears.

Over the sound of his wife's choking breaths, Shigeru could hear the crying, loud, commanding wailing coming from his newborn child as Tayuya and the other women fiercely began rubbing him off with the cloths they had sent him to fetch earlier.

"You have a son!" One of the women, another farmer's wife, beamed up at Shigeru, who in turn, kneeled down beside his wife, tears filling his eyes as he gently cradled her in his arms.

"Do you hear that, Hatsuye? A son!"

Hatsuye nodded once, still breathing deeply, and finally, after what seemed like an eternity, opened her eyes. She glanced, slightly blearily, from person to person gathered around her, skipping over all the women and her husband in turn before her eyes came to rest on the little bundle wrapped in Tayuya's arms.

"Is that…?"

"Yes, of course it is," Tayuya nodded once. "Would you like to hold him?"

By way of answer, Hatsuye stretched her arms out, and the elderly woman carefully deposited the newborn into his mother's arms for the first time.

It was so strange, to be holding the little being that had grown underneath her heart for eight months in her arms, after ages spent dreaming of this moment, it just didn't seem possible to Hatsuye. Yet here he was, her own tiny, perfect creation, wrapped up in her embrace.

"He's perfect…" Shigeru breathed, reaching one tanned, calloused hand out (that was trembling slightly) to touch his son's scrunched-up little face.

The baby wasn't exactly a handsome specimen-given his early birth he was rather more on the small side, and had wrinkled, light tan skin and a wide, gaping mouth. Ultimately, he looked more like a walnut than a human being, which only made Hatsuye love him more.

"He's certainly got a set of lungs on him, considering how early he was born," Tayuya grumped, the women around her bobbing their heads in agreement. "I'm surprised."

"He's strong," Hatsuye, whose own limbs were still trembling, assured them all, gently touching the swatch of soft dark hair on top of her son's delicate head.

"I have no doubts about that," Tayuya, who had been kneeling, slowly heaved herself to her old feet, bones creaking all the while, and shot the young couple before her a beady glare.

"You're not going to spend the whole night out here in the dirt are you?"

"Certainly not," Shigeru waved her off, but only half-heartedly—his whole focus was directed entirely on the faintly squirming being in his wife's arms.

Tayuya snorted, but after a short while, as soon as she and the ladies had transferred Hatsuye into the much more comfortable space of her bed, she and the others left and headed back to the village, no doubt to spread the good news.

Shigeru brought his wife a cup of tea (he knew how much she loved her tea) and settled down onto the bed next to her. Still, she could not take her eyes off of her baby, who, now that he had been fed, had calmed down significantly.

He peered up at his parents with wide, dark eyes that seemed to contain a faint sense of understanding, a kind of wisdom that fascinated both of them. They lay there in silence for a minute, before Shigeru broke the quiet with a question.

"What are we going to name him?"

They had tossed name ideas back and forth during the pregnancy, ones for both girls and boys, but nothing that they had ever proposed had struck them as quite right—or at least, none of them seemed right now, now that they were actually in the presence of their child.

Hatsuye thought in silence for a minute, absentmindedly stroking her son's hair, before stating, slowly and carefully, "I want our baby to have a special name. Something that will make him stand out."

Shigeru glanced down at the child in his wife's arms, and took in his son's eyes—so deep, dark, and _still _with that uncanny glimmer of knowledge in them. They reminded him of forest pools at night, utterly unfathomable.

"Jet." The word fell from his lips before he could stop it.

"Jet?" Hatsuye blinked, and examined the baby once more. She could have sworn she saw a smirk on his chubby, wrinkly little face.

The name, as simple as it was, did oddly seem to fit him in a way…it wasn't something she could put her finger on at the time, but she did like it.

"All right…" She planted a kiss on top of his head and smiled softly. "Jet it is."

_Later on, Jet was the only Freedom Fighter who kept his birth name. The others shed theirs', eager to be rid of them and the past that clung to them, but Jet kept his, wearing it almost like a mark, like a burn, like a scar._


End file.
